So we are now a few weeks into our Europe trip and have only been to a few places.. We caught trains from Greece straight through to Belgrade which was a solid 2 days travelling. We were going to stay a night in Sofia in Bulgaria, but once again I skipped it due to how depressing it is! We spent a few hours there and it was wet and miserable and the city is so bland! So we caught the day train to Belgrade which was a 9 hr trip. We had a bottle of vodka but when we shared it with the 4 other people in our carriage it didn’t last long!
Thankfully we met 2 awesome Dutch girls, an Australian guy and a Serbian who barely spoke English, but still drank vodka with us! As per usual in Eastern Europe the train was late and we were constantly at a standstill. I couldn’t wait to get there to see the city that I lived in last year and visit all my friends. Belgrade will always hold a special place in my heart!
Being back in Belgrade is awesome… Everything is the same, but different, although that doesn’t make sense! A lot has happened in the week we’ve been here. I got really sick again and was bed ridden for another 2 days. I did go and see a Serbian doctor, but the anti-biotic actually made me sicker than I already was in the first place! And what an interesting experience that was! Thank god I had stefan, my Serbian translator or I probably wouldn’t have survived.
After realising I wasn’t getting much better I decided to just bear through it. So we had a few big nights out… One which we went to the nightclubs on the river and didn’t come home until 11am the next morning. It was a total double walk of shame for Geoff and I, strolling through the city bleary eyed while people were walking their dogs or heading to work! Another night we went to an underground strip club and spent ridiculous amounts of money on some not-so-hot Serbian strippers.
We went camping in Sakule, a little village about an hour and a half by bus. Sakule is where I took guests from the hostel last year when I was running my BBQ business. We camped just by the river where there is a diving board, a swing and all sorts of Serbian villagers enjoying the summer. We had a great time besides being totally assaulted by Mosquitos! I’ve never seen anything like it. Geoff unzipped the tent in the night to go take a leak and 6 Mosquitos found their way in and helped themselves to my blood. We went through a full bottle of mosquito spray and were still being bitten!
The day we were leaving I ran into some of the local guys who I used to drink with last year and we went to their house for midday coffee and Rakija. Rakija is traditional Serbian alcohol and about 70-80% proof. A couple of shots will get you drunk and these guys drink this like water! It was a typical Serbian summer afternoon and exactly the reason I fell in love with this country in the first place!
Now I am back in Belgrade and as yet I am not sure where I will go next, but the world is my oyster! There are endless possibilities 🙂
Ciao ciao!
